The Lizard of Oz: Chapter Twenty-One
The Moors
“This is a good time for a geography lesson,” Miss Shelby told the class. “First, let’s consider the word moor. A moor is a treeless wasteland. But the word is used primarily in England. I saw a few myself when I was over there, in the southwestern part of the country. There’s the Exmoor and the Dartmoor and ..”
Linda S. asked, “What about the Nevermore?”
Miss Shelby laughed, “Oh, that’s something else altogether.”
“But I read about it last time we were in the Library. There’s this scary, lonely place called the Nevermore, and a little girl named Lenore lives there. She has raven-black hair, and she’s really beautiful.”
Everybody started looking for Lenore. But the weeds were so tall and thick it was hard to see anything.
“My, we really are in the boondocks,” said Miss Shelby.
“White woman has keen eye,” said Crazy Horse. “Boonesville very near.”
Around the next bend a big sign appeared, “Boonesville. Daniel Boone sole inhabitant. Private property — keep out. Untouched wilderness — do not touch.”
“Who goes there?” boomed a deep voice, and out stepped a tall unshaven man, wearing a nylon jacket and a coonskin cap.
Crazy Horse answered, “Big Chief Crazy Horse and Mr. New Man and Sue and Eugene and Mark and Linda S. and Linda C. and Cindy and Donny and Joey and Timmy and Miss Osborne and Kevin and Peter and Miss Shelby and Gaynell and Kathy.”
“That’s too much!” said Daniel Boone. He threw down his rifle and curled up on the side of the road and started crying. “I just wanted to get away from it all; to lead a quiet simple life, close to nature. But no, now I have to spend all my time chasing people away. Every day there are more of them. I don’t know what’s going on up there, but something’s driving people this way. I’ve done my best to close this bit of wilderness, but people just keep coming and coming. And now this — a whole tribe at once. It’s too much to take. Too much.” He cried some more.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Boone,” said Miss Osborne. “We don’t mean to disturb you. We’re just passing through on our way to the Mouth of the Nile and to Ome. But we do hope that you might help us change the world.”
“Change the world?” Daniel Boone suddenly stood up and smiled. “You’re going to change the world? You’re going to make it so people won’t want to leave it?”
“Yes,” said Miss Osborne. “That’s what we hope to do.”
“Then welcome. Welcome. I’ll do anything I can for you. First I’ll cook you supper.”
Miss Osborne would have jumped for joy, but there wasn’t any room to move in the little green VW.
“Marvelous!” exclaimed Miss Shelby. “It’s been ages since we had anything to eat.”
“You can spend the night and rest up,” continued Mr. Boone. “You have a long journey ahead of you. You can get an early start in the morning. Best of luck to you.”
“But you’ll join us, won’t you?” asked Miss Osborne, hopefully.
“No, of course, not,” said Mr.Boone. “I have to stay behind and guard the fort.”
“Oh,” said Miss Osborne very softly.
Miss Shelby wasn’t too pleased with the supper. She whispered to Miss Osborne, “Now I know why they call him a backtiersman — there’s bacteria all over everything.”
But they got a good night sleep — everyone, that is, except Miss Osborne.
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Links to other chapters and the story of how this story was written.
